Its major industries include electronics, software and telecommunications development and agriculture.

At the Annual General Meeting of the Council on the first Monday in June each year the Mayor was elected and became the first citizen of the Borough.

[2] Source:[3] Under the Review of Public Administration (RPA) the district was due to merge with Antrim Borough in 2011 to form a single council for the enlarged area totalling 572 km2 and a population of 128,361.

[4] The next election was due to take place in May 2009, but on 25 April 2008, Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that the scheduled 2009 district council elections were to be postponed until the introduction of the eleven new councils in 2011.

The area covered by Newtownabbey Borough Council had a population of 85,139 residents according to the 2011 Northern Ireland census.